Page 46 of Axton

An hour later, the ham was in the oven, and she helped me try to make pancakes the shape of reindeer, but it was a huge fail. She made fun of me, and I chased her down then tackled her to the floor to tickle her. I loved tickling her because she had the funniest and most contagious laugh ever. Kayla always joined in, and it would be them against me.

My greatest fear was child protection services splitting the three of us up. Kayla and Natalie were always my motivation to work hard to keep them fed and have clean clothes on their backs.

Kayla and I had a good family in Charleston, but my mom alienated us from them. She caused them a lot of grief and was too toxic when they didn’t give her what she wanted. She eventually became estranged from both her parents, then her siblings, and eventually my aunt and uncle. As a drunk she was toxic, but when she had moments of sobriety, she was the best mom ever. Unfortunately, those days had become more and more rare. She had a special kind of resentment reserved just for me. When I was eight, I made my parents business my own when I stepped in and took my mom’s beating for her. I almost died, and all she cared about was him being sent to prison. On every holiday and birthday, she reminded me that I was the piece of shit that sent dad to prison, and I better not forget it.

Present day…

I was shaken out of my thoughts when Bolton said my name.

“Magnus just called for a debriefing. He’s down in the command center, and Melissa is on her way to sit with Morgan and Addie already, so Creed will be here soon. We better head down there and get this over.”

I thought it was strange he wouldn’t wait until the next day for the Originals daily meeting. “What about Belle?”

“I gave Grover the keys to the motorhome so he can help unpack. Heidi is almost done with them, and she’s going to order their dinner and take them to their apartment. She’s going over in the morning to take them to the medical center and Zoey will check them out.”

Not only was I disappointed, but Belle was probably scared, and I planned to take them to their apartment and help them get settled.

“Darren is coming to the meeting, and he’ll give you a ride home.” She said as we walked out of Club X.

We walked into the command center conference room right before Creed. “What’s so important that I have to leave my pregnant wife and kid at home with a pint sized sadist?”

Everyone looked at Drakos and he whimpered as he slid down in his seat in shame. Huh, who knew Drakos even knew shame.

Magnus caught everyone’s attention. “Those fuckers today were insane. I mean like no fear of death kind of insane. They want her and they want her bad. I got a visual of this Jeremiah nut job, and he had two women politely sitting in the back seat of his mega cab Ford. How the hell does someone like that afford that kind of truck? Anyway, the women looked like they were under some sort of mind manipulation and sat there like obedient dogs while he slammed into my truck! The women didn’t even react to us, they just stared ahead, and it was creepy as hell. Those men wanted to play bumper cars on the interstate! We had them boxed in and they kept trying to head east, but we eventually got them on Waterson, and they turned around. We know they weren’t going to stay heading west, but as soon as we heard Axton made it into the gates we let them go. We didn’t have a choice, it was getting to be rush hour and too many lives were at risk. They had at least thirty people with them. I recommend putting us on lock down and taking security up to level red. They’re going to try something.” He warned us.

“Are we really afraid of some Religious cult? They can’t get past our security with what little they have.” Jennings said.

Irons sat back in his chair. “I believe he is in deep with the cartel and there’s more to this whole marriage thing to Belle than we know. Why would he risk the entire cult for one girl?”

Creed sat forward. “You haven’t seen this girl. I haven’t seen the operatives in the community center this hyped up since they learned my wife was coming here. I’m talking long legs, big blue eyes and a…”

“That’s enough.” I cut Creed off, and fuck him. “He wants her as a legal wife. Not just a spiritual wife, and he wanted it immediately after her dad died. I’m sure he’s gone by now, by the way. My bet is the old man’s will, and I wouldn’t doubt it if Belle has absolutely no idea what’s in it. This is a cult that won’t even let women drive, let alone talk about finances and estates. Koty might have some idea, but I doubt he knows either because he was being watched so closely. Not just by Jeremiah, but his own family. They didn’t trust he had faith and when he was forced to marry a child, he refused to have sex with the girl. Hell, he won’t even take responsibility for her. The elders were fed up with his resistance, but Koty refused to leave without Belle.”

Irons nodded. “That makes sense. We need to find out if the old man is still hanging in there or if he has passed. It wouldn’t hurt to look into the old man’s assets and maybe even take a look in the probate court’s system and see if anything has been filed.”

Bolton spoke up. “I spent quite a bit of time speaking with Koty, and Axton is right. Koty said women cannot inherit estates in their religion. The will states that Belle’s husband is to inherit the full estate, and he thinks his dad might be wealthy. I’m not sure if this is a clue, but he said something that makes me think there’s something very old included in the estate. He talked about the religion and said the Bible can be interpreted in many ways. For them, they follow the teachings of their ancestors forthe laws here on earth, a long line of prophets who were chosen by God himself. He reaches through the veil between heaven and earth and touches the next prophet. I wonder if they think Belle’s future husband is the next prophet. If Jeremiah marries Belle, he doesn’t just get the estate but a few thousand faithful followers that hand every dime they earn over to him.” Bolton swiveled in her chair a little and thought before she looked back up at us. “What is old that would be passed down from one generation to another?” She asked.

Everyone had a different answer. “In my family it’s alcoholism and bad decisions.” I said.

Creed chuckled. “Greed.”

“Murder suicide.” Drakos said and everyone whipped their heads around to look at him.

“What? It’s what my parents did.”

“That isn’t passed down generations. Bolton, fix Drakos, please. We need Melissa around for at least another eleven years when Addie goes to college.” Creed said.

She shook her head. “I’m not talking about those kinds of things, but something tangible that can keep giving and serve a purpose for each generation.”

Nobody had an answer.

She smiled. “Land and probably a lot of it.”

Creed looked at Irons. “Add property searches in the U.S. and Canada to the list. Maybe check out Mexico and South America as well.”

“Jeremiah couldn’t marry Belle unless he received her father’s blessing. If the father has passed that blessing must come fromher oldest living and faithful brother. Koty had been trying to work out an escape plan with Belle ever since he was forced to marry the girl. Their father wanted her taken to safety because the oldest brother gave his consent to the marriage before the father even died. My question is why her brothers would turn on her and her father?”

Creed was deep in thought. “I’m not sure what the brother gets if he’s supposed to be faithful to the religion, but I can see where Jeremiah’s plan benefits everyone but the cult followers and the people being human trafficked through the border. If this theory is right, I’d say there’s minerals on the land. Free labor, help from the cartel, and the MCs are more than happy to help because it expands their territory. We need to get our hands on that will as soon as possible.”

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